Healdton, Whitewright schools investigate student threats

The Whitewright and Healdton school districts investigated threats made by students this week. (KTEN)

Two more Texoma school districts are dealing with violent threats made by students.

Parents have been speaking out on social media and reached out to KTEN in hopes finding out what really happened at Whitewright Middle School in Grayson County, Texas.

Superintendent Steve Arthur said a student "made a threatening statement to other students in the classroom on Monday."

The student was not in possession of any weapons. The student's parents were contacted and appropriate measures were taken.

Police investigated and the student was withdrawn from the school on Wednesday morning. Interim Whitewright police chief Rick Webber said other law enforcement agencies have been alerted to the incident.

Carter County Sheriff Chris Bryant said a similar threat made Monday at Healdton High School wasn't taken seriously enough.

"Once we had figured out what the Healdton Police Department did not do, we took over the investigation immediately," he said.

Healdton police declined to comment, but Bryant said deputies believe this student should have been thoroughly interviewed before being released to a guardian.

"There's a lot of things that happen behind the scenes, personal issues," Bryant said. "It's important that we get the evaluations of these people done quickly and precisely, that way we know exactly what we are dealing with."

Healdton school officials are not commenting, since the investigation is not complete. But the school and the sheriff's office are confident that students are safe.

At the time of the threat, officials said the Healdton student did not have a gun. However, it's unclear if the student was searched by Healdton police, which would be illegal unless a guardian was present. It's unclear if protocol was followed.

Authorities say the proper protocol with school threats is to notify local law enforcement. They said both Healdton and Whitewright school administrators did everything correctly.

"Our young people are everything, and we do not want to experience anything like this in our own backyard," Sheriff Bryant said.